Long-time ABC Radio overnight host Trevor Chappell will take over ABC Radio Melbourne Afternoons (12.30pm-3.30pm) from Jacinta Parsons from next Monday, July 31.
Some bloggers reported that Diane ‘Dee Dee’ Dunleavy would be taking the ABC Melbourne afternoon shift – as she had recently been stood down from the 3AW Afternoon shift – when Jacinta Parsons announced she was stepping away, as they had ‘inside information’.
The change was announced at 1.26pm today, when Trevor Chappell, along with other ABC past hosts, such as Derek Guille, announced the changes during Jacinta Parson’s final show on ABC Radio Melbourne (formerly known as 3LO) this afternoon.
Chappell has presented ABC’s national Overnights radio program for 23 years.
Chappell says he will miss the entire Overnights community and hopes some of those listeners will join him on the new day shift.
“Over 20 years of doing Overnights, you get to know people really well and you develop friendships.”
“I’ll miss the old program and the people but I’m excited about meeting new people.”
Parsons’ departure from Afternoons comes amid some significant life changes, as she shares with ABC Everyday:
“I recently separated from my partner.”
Parsons says that after spending the past 25 with her partner and – later – their two children, suddenly living alone proved a major reality check.
“After a lifetime of noise, there was freedom in silence at first.”
“Initially, I loved it. Like, crazy loved it.”
Until, she says, the alone time started to feel lonely.
“Here I was, for the first time in my life, living some of my life alone. I realised that my sense of home would now need to be found inside me. It was an incredibly painful reckoning.”
“When I had a bad day, I realised there was no one to come home to, to help hold all the feelings, or to run through the ins and outs.”
“Being alone had always frightened me, but I was fascinated [by] how I might handle it if ever I had to face it.”
Parsons says she has learned to embrace solitude, a different concept from that of being alone.
“In solitude, we can use quiet to be with the self in ways that we can’t when we are surrounded by others.”
Jacinta Parsons will continue to host ABC Radio Melbourne Afternoons – the Friday Review – with co-host Brian Nankervis on Friday afternoons.
ABC Radio Melbourne’s official callsign is still 3LO.
